[T]he Vermont House is scheduled to vote this week on a bill that would increase state funding to extend Internet connections to public schools.
Among its many provisions, H.870 would expand the Connectivity Initiative, a grant program that started in 2014 and has so far allocated about $875,000 to three Internet service providers to provide connections to hard-to-reach areas.
When the grant program started, the Legislature funded it through an increase in Vermont’s universal service fee — the tax on all cellphone and landline bills in Vermont — from 1.8 percent to 2 percent.
The bill proposes to increase that fee by another half percentage point starting July 1 and ending in 2020. H.870 also asks the Legislature to allocate bond money from the capital bill.
The House Committee on Commerce and Economic Development originally sought $1 million for the program through the capital bill; the House Corrections and Institutions Committee cut that down to $750,000.
Both sources of revenue would be used to expand the Connectivity Initiative into a program to help schools afford the capital costs of upgrading their Internet connections, and give priority to rural schools in low-income areas.
Rep. Steve Carr, D-Brandon, who sits on House Commerce, supports the bill. Carr estimated the state would get about $1.5 million each year in additional money for the Connectivity Initiative, and the $750,000 would be one-time funding.
Carr said having the five years of increased funding for the Connectivity Initiative would allow the state to create long-term plans to build more Internet connections.
Carr also supports a provision in H.870 that would direct the Public Service Department and the Agency of Education to make a recommendation by Dec. 1 on how the state could provide competitive grants to schools to upgrade their internal Internet technology, such as routers.
“In many cases there’s fiber (optic service) coming to the school, but if it’s got old networking or something like that,” it might require more upgrades, Carr said.
